Whiteout (SGC)
Whiteout Vacuum: A punishment which involves the separation of the mind from the body. It is used on criminals considered too dangerous to be allowed to operate normally. It is commonly referred to as just Whiteout White out: A phenomenon said to be seen by Mechanoids, who for how ever long, were considered medically dead. It is said that as their sight faded to black, they would see a bright white light. Whitening Out: A medical term for brain death in mechanical/electronic brains, wherein all data/information is irreversibly lost. Part The Mechanoid sat, or more accurately, lay, sitting up, held down to a metal chair by large metallic restraints. The room was dark, save for the monitor before him, and the only limb he could move was his head. There was a chair next to his, one made to be more comfortable, it was clear to him this was an interrogation room. The mechanoid was large, bulky, with cubic, rectangular limbs and body parts, save for his bucket shaped head. His face was hidden behind a plate, and his optics glowed a bright blue. His armor was a deep green color with red and black markings, and he had numerous ports where weapons were once installed He heard the door slide open, a puff of gas, and the same sound when it closed. He heard the metal clang of the person who came in, one bot, clearly not large, but then you didn't need to be massive to do this, and the seat was clearly not made for a combat specialized mech. Though, he thought to himself, most bots in the army were normal sized. No, the mech that sat in the chair was a normal sized bot, with a similar cubic design, but there was an organic 'curve' in his appearance that meant he was either a newer model, or rather rich. He couldn't imagine anyone with the Shanks wanting to be here, or still being around, so he settled on new. The face was slender, meaning 'he' was a 'femme' type bot, that liked to be called 'her'. It was hard, impossible to say if she was a natural, 'assembly error' or one of the 'eccentrics', as the news called them, that had modified their designed. He honestly thought that 'gender' was a trivial thing for a species that literally didn't have gender in the classical sense, but he also didn't care. The bot, had an orange and white color scheme, horns on her head and thick arms and boots. She sat down holding a datapad and a stylus in hand. "So..." she said, "Zen, do mind if I call you Zen..." he just glared at her "I am Indigo..." He looked at her from head to boot. "You're orange..." "Aren't we observant..." she said with thinly veiled annoyance "but yes, that is my name. I am here for a mental evaluation, yours. The council wishes to know if your mind is salvageable enough to return you to active duty." "If it isn't...?" "Then you're going back to the Whiteout. Your Plasma Heart will be extracted, and placed in storage, along with your main CPU." "I think I would rather prefer the whiteout than deal with 'them'..." "Pray tell, who are 'they'..." "Anyone, everyone. I am bowing out of this war." "Zen, zen..." she said with faux concern "if you go back now, you're staying there..." She put her hand on his shoulder but he shrugged it off. "And after all the effort that went into bringing you back online after Hyperion put that bolt in your brain..." She said with a condemning tone. "Why are you here, it's clearly not for a 'Duty of Care'." "I am here to evaluate you..." "Why, when last I checked, you lot, you lot generally get someone to pop open my head and tinker about inside." "Come now, we are Cyberbots, Victorious would not allow that." "Victorious also doesn't know about it." "I'm not answering that." "Not unexpected..." "Let us get back on target, tell me, how were you when you were constructed...?" "I was taken of the assembly line and placed in a private pod, being force fed information until I was completed. Apparently my Heart was far more powerful than anyone anticipated. In fact, it was the only reason a glitch like me was allowed to function. Later instances of 'Super Hearts' were attempts to recreate the characteristics of my own core." "Seriously..." she said with disbelief. "You have the datapad, look it up, or as that still classified information?" "Do be serious...?" "Who said I'm not...?" "You are known for being a joker..." "Cracking jokes is not the same as not being serious. One, just is, the other is a case in timing and taste." She looked at him, annoyed. Part 2 "Okay then..." she said "what were you before the war?" "I was the foremost expert on Energy Studies in the Commonwealth, but before that, I was a miner..." "I...I fail to see how that is possible...?" "Hard work, intimidation, and a Heart so powerful it allows you to ignore certain...'systematic restraints'..." "I take it you mean, physical restraints..." "The CPU of your average Mechanoid, is not very different, overall. The same potential for intelligence in anyone, everyone, the limit, comes from the Heart. Certain 'castes' are programmed to be a certain way, a built in personality limit. They want their miners, thugs and heavy lifters dimwitted and that's the way you like it..." "How do you know that..." she said with skepticism. "I am a genius..." "Right, yet you're here..." "When last I checked, my mental health had little to do with how much data my mind could retain. Besides, if I was just a dumb brute, would they have bothered with me and this 'evaluation'?" "Cynicism..." she said writing. "Don't pretend to be writing down something important, we both know you're not." She gave him a glare, before returning to her proper stance. "You are cynically paranoid, more than likely due to your past, where you had to break social convention to get to where you were." "Is that your 'professional opinion'..." Zen said with mockery in his voice. "What is yours...?" "That you really don't want to be here. Let me guess, you don't like me, did one of my weapons kill a friend of yours, collateral damage, is collateral damage for a reason." She was silent for a moment. "You don't know me, trust me..." she with an angry tone. "I will take your word on that. So what's next...?" "How did it feel having to prove your intelligence to society...?" "How did it feel, I thought you were here to evaluate me, not ask stupid questions." "Do not avoid the question." "I was angry, sad, upset, 'insulted', I could pull a random emotion from my exhaust and it would probably be right, don't talk to me about avoiding the question. Here's a question, who are you...?" "We are not here to evaluate me..." "No, but you're doing it an antagonistic and irritating way, very unprofessional, which makes question whether you're qualified or not..." She flared up. "Qualified, who do you think you are...?!" "I am the bot, who revolutionized our means of enriching, processing and synthesizing Engen, I'm the one who decided to add Spacium to the mix, to make weapons grade fuel, I am the one who invented the Graviton Gun, first the original siege form, while ironically the hand held version was used to careen a pebble through my head at a small percentage of the speed of light. I am the one who invented Black Phosphorous and built and designed nearly every single super weapon we used against the Destroids. Who are you...?" "I..." she stopped and smirked "I don't know how to tell you this, but none of that could have actually happened." He looked at her, then he began to look around. "What's wrong?" "Come here a second..." he whispered. She stepped closed to him. The next thing she knew, she was on the ground, coming back online. Two medics in red and white were over her, doing emergency repairs and a check up, while two guards in grey were behind them, aiming blaster rifles at Zen who was still constrained to the table. "What happened...?" she asked as they helped her up. The top left of her head felt sore, upon touching it, she realized she had a large dent in her helmet/head. "I headbutted you..." said Zen, unconcerned with the weapons aimed at him "You may not like me, but don't try to lie about me about my entire life." "You glitch, I should have you shot...!" "Go ahead..." said Zen surprising everyone "Duranium plating, these little toy shooters aren't going to do much." "That's impossible, Duranium is far too heavy even for..." "Did my body not give it away? I was at Gaz, I have a Super Heart. Did they really send you in here, without telling you anything about me?" "Don't, you're lying again, you can't..." "Then shoot me, right here in the face, come on...! You know you want to..." "Look..." said the medic "we need to take you in for repairs, that blow may have damaged your CPU. You need to be operated upon!" "Fine..." she sneered. She left with the medics, while the two guards stayed behind. "So..." said Zen "where did you two serve?" The two just looked at each other. Part 3 Indigo awoke, on the metal slab, to the sight of a grey mechanoid. Unlike the guards who had cubic builds, his limbs were cylinder in design. That and the fact that he wore a cape, told her that he was a person of rank. Indigo sat up, and then stood up and saluted in shock, panic and surprise. "Cerebrium sir...!" she said.. "At ease, you're not a soldier Indigo." he said calmly "not anymore." "Sorry, sir..." The two stood inside a room of white panels, metal slab beds and terminals next to each. There were also cylinder shaped capsules integrated into a wall, and a work station. It was a medical bay. "How is the patient doing...?" "If by patient, you mean Zen, or as he likes to be called, 'Maxion', he is fine, possibly homicidal, with a lack of concern for the well being of others..." "Yes, I heard that he headbutted you, you're lucky, the last time he did that, he crushed someone's head. So I think he was either holding back, or you are very lucky." She was in silent shock "...I had to get...several replacement chips..." "How unfortunate, but you still function..." "So, it's true, his 'Duranium', armor plating..." "Zen, was an up and coming scientist, he studied energy and revolutionized how we processed fuel. Without his work, the war probably would've started sooner. However, due to certain events, he has slowly but surely become increasingly...hazardous to those around him. Volatile, dangerous, we ignored it because it meant weapons to use against our enemies. Now we fear that his homicidal tendencies have evolved, for lack of a better term, into omnicidal urges against our entire species, maybe even the galaxy. Your job is to bring him back from the brink." "I...I don't know if I can...He is so..." "Infuriating...I know, but he is important, his genius has long served the Cyberbot cause. Without him, we will be hard pressed to match Hyperion's machinations." "I...I understand..." "What...?" said Indigo. Zen, sat up, his optics turning back on. "Oh, you're back..." he said with an uninterested tone. "Were, were you just offline...?" "I was sleeping..." "Organics, sleep, we shut down, turn off, or go into stasis." "But I sleep..." "I didn't realize your psychosis was so...deep..." "Your tablet is in your chair." She turned around and picked it up and noticed something. Someone had been looking through her files, but... She dismissed the idea of Zen, he was bound, which left the two guards, or maybe the medics while she was out. "Something wrong...?" "Nothing..." she sat down "shall we begin?" "I don't know shall we...?" "Let's, first things first...what was Gaz...?" Zen was silent "It's a simple question..." "Which implies how little you know about anything. When were you manufactured...?" "Excuse me...We are not..." "Oh, it's an important question if you want yours answered. When were you manufactured, because either your too young to know about such history, or you simply don't care, neither cases inspire confidence in you." "I would have you know..." "Shut it off and listen..." he said with a growl, silencing her. "Tell, me when you were manufactured and I will tell you a very interesting story, that will no doubt help with your evaluation...deal?" She was silent. "I was manufactured on Cromus Station, ID Code: 555393852-3452-52." "Cromus Station, so that makes you what, one, two centuries old...?" "I have function for three hundred standard Galactic Average Garden Zone years." "I was around when the war started, do you know why it started...?" "No, but I think you're going to tell me..." "Huh, it's learning." Part 4 "Now..." said Zen "a couple thousand years ago, the galaxy was a different, place, before and just after the First Great Mechanoid War, several centuries before then, and we had built up our world..." "After the Senticons destroyed it..." said Indigo, "the race you are now claiming to be a part of..." "Vandoricon, Senticons were just the military...though I am surprised you know about them." "You are claiming to be a race, that by all logic should be hated by both Destroid and Cyberbot. That is hard to miss in a briefing." "Yes, well..." "What does this have to do with the war...?" "Patience...Ah, yes, I was just built, or more accurately I was just let out of my capsule, I was given a shovel and put in a mine. That was around the time it started..." "What...?" "The big shut down, the slowing of the energy pulses from the core of Chromium. The Engen mines, the Foundries, they were all beginning to grind to a halt. You see, there are, or were, two main types of Mechanoids from Chromium. There are those designed, whose code were unnaturally written and integrated into a ball of plasma and photonic particles, Engen, which is why it is our main fuel..." "I know this..." "Indeed, and the more you interrupt the longer this is going to take. Now, the other type, my kind, our Hearts came online not from design, but from the pulses from the core, what you now consider older models. Do you know the reason your type appeared?" "We were more efficient...?" "Indeed..." She looked at him surprised. "I didn't expect you to..." "Don't be so pleased with yourself, that is part of the problem. Those Hearts that didn't make the cut, were 'deleted', it is why batches are given their number afterwards and are not during production, and why they are almost always odd numbers. That was until your kind came along, designer people." "Is this going to be age old bigotry...? Because..." "I have no quarrel with anyone and how they come into this world. But my point is such, the presence of your people created social segregation, and that 'old bigotry' you spoke off." "Hold on, you said, failures were..." "Disposed off..." "Yes, but you...why didn't they kill you...?" "Who said they didn't try...?" She looked at him with surprise. "You can remember it you know, that time when you were just a ball of energy, an artificial energy being, at that point they are more instinct than actual memories, no chips to record the sensation, the pixels, but you were aware. But I digress..." "And you still haven't explained..." He looked at her, and that simple motion silenced her. "There was social segregation, the Natural versus the Coded. At first it was the Coded who were being looked down upon, after all you were designer people, designed for one task and only one task, while Naturals, though difficult as it was, had choice. Then I came along, a 'glitched' natural, and when I made my big break to the scientific field, those with an agenda were behind me. I was a model of Natural 'superiority'..." "Did you believe that...?" "In the mines, do you KNOW what the difference between Naturals and Coded, was?" "What...?" "Nothing, you, we were all the not-upper-class and that was it. Then came Cerebrium with his terrible news, the core was dying...and no one knew why. The religious said it was retribution for the creation of 'unnatural life', the scientific said the core was probably going into a natural cycle of cool-down and then would flare back up again. Different words, but the conclusion was clear, there were too many on the surface of Chromium, we had created a society that the world could not handle, was not designed for." "Then, the war started...?" "NO!" he sighed "That was when I announced my inventions, synthetic Engen, more energy efficient systems, improved enrichment techniques. I was hailed as a savior but it couldn't stop the inevitable and honestly there was also that nasty little side effect." "Which was...?" "Unforeseen consequences..." Part 5 "I don't understand..." said Indigo. "Of course you wouldn't..." he said amused. "Then let me be clear. I solved the energy crises, correct...?" "Correct..." "Wrong..." "Then explain..." "It is true, we were not going to worry about running out of Engen now...technically, but the fact remained that we had an overpopulation problem. There were too many tanks to fill, and not enough servos working to get that fuel. To make matters worse, bots were being let off, replaced by drones, in the mines, to save a Shank or two. To make matters worse, the upgrades I had invented, they made them expensive, too expensive, for just any bot to get. They didn't need to be, they shouldn't have been. Then came the kicker. New coded were being created, with Plasma Hearts designed to be more efficient." "And that started the war..." "Will you let me finish..." he said annoyed. "Where was I, ah, yes. There were riots, bots were terminated, people protested, but the assembly lines kept going, and these new Coded, were being put in positions were coded, usually didn't go, management, science, and to those that could see, it was clear that the older generation, older models, Natural and Coded, were being slowly but surely left to rust. One Coded even ran for the council..." "What happened to him?" "He was suspended upside down from a bridge, where the fuel leaked out of his wounds. I think they renamed the bridge after him." "That's cold..." "It's history, it's centuries too late to be 'emotionally triggered'. Anyway, that's when it started, when the term 'Destroid' was first used. It was after their slogan, 'we will not be destroyed'. Then Cerebrium announced publicly what anyone with eyes and ears would've suspected, that the Core was slowing down. They rioted in the capital..." "Where were you...?" "Drunk in my penthouse, after coming home from the announcement, drunk on enriched Engen and Circuit Boosters..." "Really...?" she said with disappointment "I was new money, wasn't good with it yet." "But all that happened... and you just..." "My opinion back then, was that of most upperclass, 'it wasn't my problem'." There was silent disgust on her face. "A moot point eventually, 'they' made it my problem. The Destroids formed a party, and they began terrorist activities, bombing plants, refineries and penthouses. They even tried to blow up Parliament. Thus the Supreme of the time expanded the private guard of the council into a full army under his control..." "No..." she said with disbelief. "Yes...The Cyberbots, we are, we were, personal enforcers of the Council and its puppet Supreme. Many joined up, to be paid in fuel, others...others were coerced..." "Like you..." "No piece of council slag, ever 'coerced' me. Which is why they simply took me, they put me in this body and dropped me into combat with other modified bots with Super Hearts." "Gaz..." "And now, we get to the point, Gaz, it was a plain you know, a massive metal expanse of rust and techno-matter. However, underneath it, was a massive network of refineries and assemblies, the largest on the planet. As well as the massive containers needed to store them." "I don't understand, why destroy them if all of this was about energy, resources..." "Our society was divided in two, by a question, it wasn't the riots, or the segregation, those were symptoms of a larger problem, culminated in one simple question..." "A question...?" she said with skepticism. "A simple one, one every civilization eventually has to ask...'where do we go from here'?" Part 6 Indigo had paused. The question swirled about her neural circuits looking for an answer that wasn't there. It was a question she had never asked, or, more accurately, like so many she had been afraid to ask. The war had raged for longer than she was alive, as far as she knew, there had only ever been the war. The world he had described to her, was so different, so alien, she couldn't help but wonder why they let it go. "Feeling lost...?" said Zen. She snapped out of it. "No, I do not..." trying to reclaim her composure. "It's okay you know..." he said with genuine compassion for once. No smirk, sarcasm, just a genuine metaphorical passing of the branch. "We're all lost in our own little ways. But I digress." "You do that a lot..." "Is that humor...?" he said amused. "Get on with the story..." "I honestly would rather not..." "So you admit to have been leading me on a nebula chase!" "No..." he was somber "you have to understand, Gaz...was the Pit. At Gaz I came back online in the back of a dropship, in a new body that was literally not mine, with a new operating system that I was not familiarized with. I had a heavy repeater blaster in my hand, connected to my backpack, me and several other similar bots who were taken under orders from the government. We didn't even land, I heard my first blaster bolts before I saw them. We dropped some 30 mecha-meters in the air, and one or two of us didn't make it down. And then we had to fight...All around us was fire and explosions, the remains of mechanoids, twisted, blasted and contorted with pain and terror painted on what remained of their faces. There were so many blaster bolts flying through the air, detonators going off, Plasma Warheads exploding at any one time, the air began to super heat, melting the primordial techno-matter into one solid, giant sheet of metal." "Sounds...awful..." she said with genuine understanding, on some level. "We fought for three solar cycles straight, I have seen more internal parts that most repair bots..." His tone was bitter as he stared angrily to the wall in front of him. "But you survived..." "You are a third generation Coded yes...?" "Well..." "The question was rhetorical, all new Cyberbots and Destroids are Coded. You were made for which campaign...?" "...The battle of Sensus 4..." "I know that world, a hot place. Now imagine, that before that moment, before you came down in the drop pod, you had a life, memories, you had done things, great things, petty things, stupid things, brave things, and all of them, now meant...nothing..." "You're upset that you were drafted...?" she said confused. "I don't think you understand..." "What is there to understand...?" "The problem..." "What problem...?" "The same problem that made me shoot down my commanding officer's plane." "I still don't..." "My commanding officer demanded that bots like myself, stayed behind, not to provide support for those evacuating, but to continue fighting. Destroids had made their way into the facility below us, they had set of fuel stored there, Gaz was literally erupting beneath our very feet...and he wanted us to fight? Then, again, we were being ordered on a suicide mission for no other reason than to fuel some idiot commander's ego trip. So I killed him and along with other...things, got myself put in whiteout. And before all of that, there was the Coded, who eventually became the symptom of this civilization's problem, manufactured people, 'truly' manufactured." "You still haven't..." "You cannot be this dense..." he said annoyed, and she recoiled insulted. "Fine I shall make it so simple even you can figure it out. The organics, they call us what...'machines'...?" "We are mechanical..." "But that is not what they mean. A machine is a system, an input one place, results in and output another, that is the basic premise and definition, of a 'machine'. Does that describe you...?" "Uh..." she said taken back. "You were expecting me to say 'me' weren't you... or us?" "What, no!" "You're a terrible liar. But again, that proves my point. You are conditioned to do it, you don't even notice it, until it's your turn. I know you would have said no, culture definitions of rudeness and all that, but in the back of the mind, scraping against your consciousness, was the 'yes' ready to fire off. It was that same 'yes' that made former rich bots like myself decide that the problem of the masses, wasn't 'our' problem. It was that yes that told the government that they could create designer people and condemn the natural born to a slow extinction without a quarrel and it was that 'yes', that made them think that soldiers were expendable." "You can't be serious, okay then answer me this, why am I here, evaluating you, if they don't care...?" Part 7 Zen thought about her question. "I..." said Zen "Am a genius scientist, who revolutionized our use of energy, I am an inventor of super weapons and I have a body that few Plasma Hearts could hope to move let alone survive in. You tell me why they care, and while we are on the subject, how many Psychiatrists are there besides you...?" "Well...?" "Not a lot, after all yours is a rather new field. All those organic races, they had mental doctors long before they touched the stars, but not us...We now have psychiatrists because numerous times soldiers have decided to shoot themselves or each other than the enemy. The obvious notion, that we are more than machine, we are people has finally sunk into the council's hard drives because the 'bottom line is threatened'. That is why you are here, you're not here to 'help me', and really you're not here to save me, you are here to tell what ever nonsense you think I need to be told to chipper up, get back in line and do as I am told." Indigo stood up. "You are paranoid, delusional, probably narcissistic and a conspiracy glitch!" "I'm also completely right..." She shattered her datapad, trying to smack him with it. "What was the point of that story, to make me come over to your side, to feel for you...?" "What you feel, is to me, trivial, I told the truth, because I wanted to." "Really..." she said, very upset, seething. "Then I suppose I should just write you down as fit for duty." "Go ahead..." "Oh, and why is that...?" "Because I tolerate you people calling me 'Zen', but I am Maxion Prime. For one reason, I am in these restraints, for one reason." "You're crazy..." she said with skepticism. "Perhaps, because I murdered all three hundred or so Plasma Hearts aboard the Resolution. Some I vented into space, most I crushed, punched to death, stomped on, ripped in half and one I threw into one of the reactors taking him out and leaving the ship dead in space." Indigo stood there, in shock, in horror, at how calm and matter of fact he just confessed to all of those murders. "Why do you want Whiteout so badly...?" "Because I don't want to see any of you people anymore..." "People...?" it was mainly organics that used that term. "Cyberbots, Destroids, Chromiums, whatever word you want to use. I have no interest in helping your civilization anymore..." "And what about the Titans...those things have been burning half the galaxy trying to kill all of us. They even forced the Destroids to ally with us!" "That's...not my problem..." She stepped back in disbelief at what she was hearing. Before she would've considered him saying, was him being callous, now she understood, completely, that he was condemning her entire race to extinction. "What is your problem!?" "You're the psychiatrist, isn't it your job to figure it out?" "Don't play games with me...!" she said walking over to him pointing, then she stopped. "Someone remembers... You must wonder how much damage has this war caused, and I do mean, damage, in terms of lives, mechanical and organic, worlds, how many lives has your race destroyed, in the callous name of progress? What would happen if you were all suddenly just...gone? Would anyone, care, would anyone feel bad, or would those left behind simply say 'good riddance' Tell me..." She was silent. "I thought so..." "You are certain..." said Cerebrium sitting behind a metal desk. Indigo was in his office, filled with numerous awards, digital novels in hard copy datapads and photos of him and numerous other important bots, she didn't have names for. "Yes sir..." she replied "Zen has this deep seated hatred of his species due to the events of the war. I believe what started out as a hatred for simply the Destroids, slowly grew to encompass us as well. Mental Health recovery techniques are still rather new. The only possible treatment I could see for him would be a full blow memory wipe, but that would take away his intellect and require his CPU and Heart be transferred to a more standardized body, less the strain of his current one cause it to overheat and collapse." "Most unfortunate, Zen was very useful to the Cyberbot cause." 'Useful', that choice in wording bothered her, and despite how she tried to look alright, she couldn't help but feel that way. "Until such time as he is put in Whiteout, I would like to continue to study him..." "I see..." "For that I would like access to his files..." he gave her a look, subtle look of disapproval that she immediately got. "Nothing restricted, or confidential, just, if possible a recount of what happened to him before his...rampage..." "Very well..." "And I will also need a new datapad..." she said with embarrassment. "I understand, Zen can be...Zen, even when he's crazy apparently..." Part 8 "Well now..." said the medical bots. It was a group of three, with soldiers with them, armed with blaster rifles "It seems as though it's time for someone to go white out." They came in the room with a hover desk, bearing several tools and devices. "Indeed..." said Zen. The medic took out a device and aimed it at his head. There was a flashing light, a noise and suddenly Zen was unconscious. "We shall now begin the operation. Guards, if anything goes wrong, charged blasts, or rapid fire to his Heart, nothing else is guaranteed to stop him." Indigo sat in the lounge. She was at a table by herself, looking at a datapad which held the report of the injury he suffered before his episode. It spoke of how half his CPU, his brain, was shredded by a charged blast from a graviton gun, an arm mounted cannon, the 'hand held version' he spoke of. It also spoke of something else, something she didn't understand. "Excuse me..." she said grabbing the arm of the medic walking past her. "Yes...?" he said annoyed. he was carrying a datapad that he was going over. "Can you explain to me what Techno Venom is?" He paused and cringed. "That's some nasty stuff, Hyperion created it, but then again they say that about all their nastiest toys..." "Okay, but what is it...?" "It's an energy beam, physically it does nothing, but it sends kill codes directly into the Plasma Heart..." "...'Kill Codes'...?" "Within our Hearts is a code, to us what to organics what their DNA is. Our anatomy may be mostly the same, but that code decides everything about us. You've heard of Coded and Naturals, right...?" "Who hasn't...?" "Well, that goes to show how much that Life Code affects us. But it's a lot of IF Statements, WHILE Loops and other functions that generate our energy signature in a cyclical fashion, the primal program that runs the Operating System in our CPU to give you a mechanoid. The Kill Codes send data that stops all those loops and triggers those IF statements, making the body's systems turn off, or just go haywire. Even if that doesn't kill them, the code basically makes the Life Code, the Primal Program to cease to function, the Heart has no choice but to dissolve into unstable plasma and photons. Heck the CPU even Whiteouts..." "Whiteout, you mean it disconnects from the Heart...?" "No, that's the Whiteout Vacuum, named after Whiteout. At the instance of termination, when the Heart dissolves into unstable plasma, it sends energy pulses, burning the data, basically all information, all programs, get erased. Not, put in the recycle bin, I mean erased, as in gone for good." "Has anyone ever survived that...?" she said with an alarmed expression "No..." he said as if the answer was obvious "...well not really. You would need to administer a counter virus, but we don't have that, we've never gotten a sample. We know about it only because the Destroids boast too damn much. When the Kill Codes do their work, there is nothing left to analyze." "But this guy, he..." "Does he have a Super Heart...?" "So he says..." "So he says, the only person to survive a blast of Techno Venom, had a super heart and he was rendered alive, but brain dead. We had to program a new operating system and place him in a normal model body, as his Heart had been reduced to a normal status. Granted with time, we may be able to restore him to his prior power level but, his mental state..." He finally noticed that she had ran off "How rude..." Indigo ran down the halls and into the elevators. It made no sense to her, how could some one who should be brain dead, know and remember all of that, was he making it up as he went along? But then, if he was supposed to be rendered brain dead, how could he then go on a rampage, and kill all those bots. Nothing made any sense. She finally got the door, put in the code, and the door opened. In front of her Zen stood tall and she finally understood just how tall he was. She, an average sized bot, only came to somewhere in the lower power of his upper body. Said body was now covered in blue glowing liquid, Engen, the high quality stuff. Around him were the broken and destroyed bodies of the medics and guards, their chests smashed in, their heads compressed, either into their chest cavities or into a rough, bumpy 'sheet' of metal. In his hand was the last medic, his head to be more accurate. His arm was missing and he was kicking and screaming, and if he was organic he would've been crying. He was begging for his life, pleading and trying to bargain with money, fuel supplies, 'favors' their culture labeled as taboo. Zen, Maxion, looked Indigo dead in the eyes. His were calm, to the panic in her optics, and he crushed the unfortunate bot's head. The body dropped, leaving the spinal column in the air, attached to an eye like metal orb, with closed vents and connection ports all over it. His Heart Casing quickly melted away in small but very bright burst of energy. Part 9 "I was not expecting you, I must admit, I am surprised. That is not usually the case." "I...I...I..." "You have words, use them, while you still can..." He placed the spinal column on his shoulder, as if it was for decoration. "I saw...your medical file, your fight with Hyperion..." "Yes, the event had freed me from the programming, the Chromium Programming, it erased the 'personality' that was Zen, leaving only me..." "And you are...?" "I am the thing that was in the core of your world, put there for torture, it had the unexpected side effect, the unforeseen consequences of creating your kind." "You are our...creator...?" "Your progenitor would be more accurate, beyond Hyperion, all the original Chromiums were eradicated. Your real creators used me to mass produce Mechanoids. You were not as they wanted, so they abandoned you, and me to my torture. I escaped, and you can guess the rest. Honestly I really have to apologize to the galaxy for letting this stupid civil war get so out of hand... My Ember, it was infused with your wretched Life Code, a prisoner in my own mind, still I was an Ember, not a mass produce imitation. With that bullet through my head, I was already on the way to freedom, but the Kill Code, sped up the process." "You expect me, to believe that...?" "No, but I expect you to well...yes..." "Yes...what...?" "The answer to the question that has been running through your mind since you opened that door...yes..." Indigo was silent. "I see..." Without a warning she took off, turning around to punch the console, closing the door running for dear life, whimpering, doing all she could to not fall over. She ducked around the corner and she heard it. She heard Maxion rip of the door and walking. "You there, freeze...!" said a guard "or we will open fire!" Indigo could hear the blaster fire and the cries of anguish. She began to slump down, and sat down on the floor. Surely she thought, even if his armor was so durable, he couldn't withstand all of those blaster bolts. She put her hands on her face, and began to chant a mantra, a repetitive sequence of words that were meant to calm her. Then she heard it, the sound of a large metal boot coming down. She opened her optics and turned to see Maxion, frozen mid step around the corner and staring down at her. There was carbon scoring on his armor, clear signs that the bolts had hit their marks, but the damage was clearly cosmetic. He wasn't hurt, he wasn't damaged, but his fists now had much more Engen on them. Indigo, panicked, the sensation of fear caused a skip in her Plasma Heart that translated to the inappropriate opening of certain valves. Her body shivered for a moment, as a pool of Engen formed beneath, while she looked at Maxion stuttering. Maxion looked at her, and then looked down the hallway and began to walk away. "So...I'm not that important...?" she said, all but broken by fear. She had been on the battlefield, she had been practically born there. Like any Cyberbot she had killed at least one Destroid, that was the reality of her world. She had seen the din, fire, and bedlam of the battlefield, the roaring, and the gnashing of teeth...and this was nothing like that. She understood that he hated them, all of them, but there was no hate in his actions, no hint of malice towards them she could detect, beyond the obvious and visible murder. He just killed them, no shouting, nor barking of orders, no battle cry, witty, rude or insulting remarks. This was not done for any emotion, neither for hatred of one's enemy nor fear of death, it was cold. As far as she could tell, he just decided to kill them, and that was it, and that frightened her more than anything she had seen on the battlefield. He looked back at her. "No, trust me, I haven't forgotten about any of you..." Part 10 Zen's head blew opened, the side of it, of his helmet, revealing the cluster of chips, wiring and other structures that made up his brain. His body was red blue and white, and sported attachments on his arms, a metal backpack and a thick metal rings around his legs. He was in the jungle, a jungle, and before him was a mechanoid with wide shoulders, purple and black armor, and single optic for a face. His left arm was an arm cannon, and while his body sported the typical cubic design, it also had an organic curve to it. This was Hyperion. His cannon had just shot Zen in the head, most other Mechanoids, Cyberbot or Chromium would be down for that, but instead Zen grabbed him by the shoulders. From a compartment in his thigh, Hyperion pulled out a can, a cylinder shaped barrel with a hand grip and trigger, which he fired directly into his chest, a bright green beam. Zen twitched, his eyes turned green for a second, and he fell back unconscious. Three Hours Later 'Zen' was gone, instead Maxion found himself in a Cyberbot body, one with Duranium armor plating. With his Ember, as opposed to a Plasma Heart, and the fact that he was in a repair capsule, surrounded by green connect fluid and mechanical arms and nano-bots, his recovery was moving ahead of time. "I tell you..." said a voice from outside the capsule "Something is wrong!" "He's recovered, how is that wrong...?" "Even with a Super Heart, repairs like his would require replacement of nearly half of his Neural Chips! Even worse, his armor plating is Duranium, that stuff is almost Super Dense, do you know how hard it is, how long it takes to repair that amount of Duranium, Lunar Cycles!" "Super Heart..." "Does that explain how he survived Techno Venom? The last bot to survive that, one with a Super Heart, WAS CPU DEAD! Half of his CPU should be missing. I'm telling you something is wrong...!" "You would think that as a medic, you would want to understand how he was able to recover so fast, so you could, you know, replicate the process..." "Look just don't..." "Too late...!" "You Glitch-Spawn!" The fluid within the capsule began to drain away, as the mechanical arms retreated above him. With the liquid gone, the nano machines also went with it, leaving him dry. The capsule doors opened and he walked out to two mechanoids, a medic and a common soldier. "Yo, Zen..." said the soldier. Maxion was silent, and just looked at him "Huh, you may have been right about the brain damage." He said, turning to the medic. Maxion raised his hand and brought it down, crushing the soldier's head and causing his Heart casing to rupture, blowing a hole in his chest. Three Days Later Maxion awoke, upright held down to a slab of metal on a hover system, by metal restraints. His modifications were gone, his personal color scheme, his attachments to his arms, legs, his backpacks, his weapons and tools were all gone. The last thing he remembered was being covered in restraining bolts by the boarding party he tried to kill. Beside him were four soldiers, bearing blaster rifles, and in front of him was Cerebrium. He had been in his office before and Cerebrium did not look happy. "Three hundred and twelve Cyberbots on that ship, twenty from the search team, all of them killed by you...?" "Is that a new record...?" he said with an amused tone. Cerebrium slammed his hands on his desk. "Are you malfunctioning!?" he shouted. "Hardly..." said Maxion in a sinister tone. "Zen..." "That is not me name...I am Maxion Prime, and I am your end, Chromium..." Cerebrium looked at him. "You've clearly lost..." "The look on your face tells me otherwise, interesting..." Cerebrium said nothing, but sat back down. "Take him away...Have him put in one of the holding cells, until we can find a Mental Doctor to evaluate him..." Three Hours Later Maxion was in his cell with Indigo, talking, to her. He dislike her sense of arrogance, he found it unprofessional for a psychiatrist, but then again, for Chromiums, it was a new field. Eventually he got her to leave and continue what he was doing. Since being freed from the persona of Zen, Maxion found that his Ember had a unique ability when in his current body. His old body, was biomechanical, a composition of mechanical cells, organic style claytronics, and thus closely connected to his body. His body didn't move without a pulse from his Ember, but this body was different. Instead of being driven by his Ember, it moved through mechanical locomotion, motors and servo mechanics, though it connected to Magnetic Joints. It left his Ember free to do other things, like connect with mechanical devices via his biofield. He saw her datapad, and began to practice, the hardest part was connecting to it, then accessing the IFF protocols. Once he figured those out, it was easy to bulldoze his way through any firewalls, or encryption methods. Then it came time for something harder, the computer, in the room, the computer in chair controlling his restraints. Part 11 The two Femme bots laughed at the other's jokes as they were leaving the recharge lounge, the mechanoid equivalent of a cafeteria. The door opened, and Maxion took off the head of the one on his left. The screamed and tried to run away, but he grabbed her by the arm, picked her up and tore her in half at the waist. He walked to the counter, throw her two halves to the side. From behind the counter a mechanoid got up, hold a blaster rifle and opened fire. The bolts of plasma burst apart against his armor. The most they did was ignite the Engen on his person for short instances of blue flames covering portions of his body. Eventually he punched his way through the counter and through the mechanoid. "I don't under..." said a Guard. He was one of many now stationed outside the doors of the lounge, ready to try and take down Maxion, all armed with blaster rifles "Why come here...?" "Maxion..." said Indigo "Sorry, Zen, he hasn't refueled since he was brought in. Probably not since before his injury. As powerful as he is, he need to refuel like everyone else." She was beside Cerebrium, who was being escorted with two larger, near Maxion sized soldiers, with twin blasters attached to their forearms. "So he' probably tired..." said the captain of the group. The only one with color to his appearance "Okay let's go..." The door opened, and immediately they stopped as they say a discarded blaster rifle in front of them. The warning light flashing at a frantic pace. "What...?" the gun exploded, all the energy, the fuel stored under pressure was ignited all at once in a single blast that took out most of the door, the wall and the squad, while knocking the others onto their backs. "Quick, go...!" shouted Cerebrium. His two guards opened fire and ran into the smoke. Seconds later, the sound of blaster bolts splashing against metal could be heard, and then the sound of metal, violently clashing with metal. Then came screams of anguish and pain. Seconds later Maxion walked out of the smoke, new engen on his fists and a heavy blaster rifle in one arm. He walked, he didn't care what was in his way, as he crushed Cerebrium's leg, with callous disregard and proceeded on his way. Indigo moved towards Cerebrium, to try and help him up. "It is not our fault...!" shouted Cerebrium as he was helped up. Maxion stopped and looked back "We didn't know you were down there, we couldn't..." "It was well within your power to let me out, and I am well aware you realized that there was an 'entity' down there, and the pulses inflicted great pain on it. But I do not blame anyone for where they came from. However, I know you, I know your civilization, and I know that you simply did not care." "So what now...?" "Now...? Now I am leaving. You are 'free' to stop me, it's more freedom than you ever gave me, Cerebrium..." Maxion walked off, tinkering with his weapon. Around the corner, he opened a panel and place it inside, before running off. "Why, why couldn't these drones have figured out reconfiguration...?" he mused in annoyance. Moments Later Maxion's shuttle took off, while Cerebrium and Indigo made their way to the bridge. "Fire on that shuttle...!" barked Cerebrium at the captain. "Sir...?" "Just fire, it's an escaped prisoner...!" The captain nodded and turned to his staff. "Lock on to that shuttle and disable it...!" "No, destroy, it's the only way to stop him...!" "Sir..." Just do it..." "Sir we have the target locked on..." said an operator. "Fire...!" shouted Cerebrium. The button was pressed, and suddenly the shipped rocked about as the lights flickered on and off. "What was that...?" "An explosion in the plasma line, internal, starting from Deck C..." "The Recharge Lounge...?" said Indigo.. "Forty percent of our plasma line was destroyed before safety locks activated. Large portions of the ship are without power, sixty percent of the crew are unaccounted for and main reactor is down, we are currently on battery power. Weapons are a no go..." "Damn him..." said Cerebrium In his shuttle Maxion set the ship's destination and strapped him. Within moments, the jump drive was charged and he was taken lightyears way from his current location...into an asteroid field. It was a deserted region of space, but it was where he wanted to go. Maxion sat down and began to turn off his systems. Newly refueled, he began to pump all of his stored fuel into his Ember, taking on, all of that power. He needed that power to escape. Were his brain still intact, he could've done this normal, but now he would have to force his way out. Within moments his chest glowed, and breaking the connections, his chest opened and a light flew out, melting through the window and speeding out towards space. Epilogue "Could this get any worse...?" said the Mechanoid He had the same basic body design as Cerebrium, all of them did, several bots sitting in a circle. Cerebrium was there, sitting with a new leg. "You would think that with the ceasefire, things would look up for us. The Titans are no longer bent on eradicating us, the Destroids are now at peace with us, and we are soon to be given new bodies capable of things we never expected. Now Maxion is gone..." "Zen, may have been..." said Cerebrium. "It is Maxion, Maxion Prime, 'Zen' is irrelevant. I have spoken with the Masters. The reason more and more Hearts failed to cling to life was because of his freedom. The most primal part of life code, connects this 'Ember' on a quantum level to ignite a Plasma Heart. Now that he completely free, he is actively rejecting those signals. Unless he is put, back in the core, our race faces extermination." They began to murmur among themselves. "Then our course is clear, a team of our best, the best among both Cyberbot and Destroid, to capture and contain this Maxion Prime...!" "Do you know where he has gone...?" asked another member. "We found his shuttle, the vessel...was deserted...But we have a starting point." "Good..." said the first speaker "we shall see to getting you the team you ask for." "One suggestion..." "Oh..." "A Cyberbot named Indigo, before his escape, she was serving as his Psychiatrist and may have some insight into how he thinks." "Agreed, she may join."Category:Episodes Category:SolZen321 Category:Maxion Series Category:Completed